Connor McDavid has his golden goal.
After a relatively quiet three regulation periods from the best player in the world, it didn’t take him long to score the biggest goal of his career, giving Canada Gold against the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off in a 3-2 victory.
Both teams avoided mistakes early in overtime, playing it safe as they tried to pick their spots. The only problem was that the USA made the biggest mistake of all: they left McDavid alone in front of the net.
The goal becomes instantly classic, dusting off Mitch Marner’s pass before picking his spot on Connor Hellebuyck, a goaltender he’s beaten 10 times before in his career.
It’s poetic that McDavid was the one to clinch the gold medal. After all, one of the games brightest young stars has never represented his country in a best-on-best tournament. Make no mistake about it, though, McDavid has always shown up in international tournaments in the past.
His last time wearing the Maple Leafs on his chest came in 2018, captaining Canada at the World Championships, scoring five goals and 17 points in 10 games in what was his second time at that tournament. There’s also the World Juniors, too, where he represented Canada twice, winning gold in his second time there in 2014-15, winning Gold.
It’s been a long time for McDavid to have his big moment, and he was nothing short of excellent for Canada throughout the tournament. He finishes with three goals and five points in his four games, with his two prior goals being game-openers in the round-robin tournament against the United States and Finland.
But Thursday night’s goal will be the one forever remembered.

Scoring summary

Nathan MacKinnon broke open the scoring for Canada just under five minutes into the came, taking a Thomas Harley pass, circling up to the point and firing a long, seeing-eye wrist shot that tickled twine over Connor Hellebuyck’s shoulder.
While Canada continued to push they couldn’t find a second before Brady Tkachuk got the American side into it. Auston Matthews was carrying the puck behind the Canadian net, before sending a pass out in front. Tkachuk pushed his way through multiple Canada players before somehow getting a stick on the puck, fluttering it over the shoulder of Jordan Binnington.
Seven and a half minutes into the second, the collars got tight for Canada, as Jake Sanderson gave the United States their first lead of the night. Once again it was Auston Matthews as the setup man after a backhand shot rebounded off Binnington to Sanderson, who made no mistake in scoring.
Canada would respond soon after.
Mitch Marner grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone carrying it into the offensive zone, making a quick move to the inside pulling USA defenceman Adam Fox with him. It opened up space for Sam Bennett to slide onto the back porch of Hellebuyck’s net, get a pass and roof it.

Backhanders…

  • Life now returns back to normal for the NHLers who played at the tournament. Friday won’t see any games, but the weekend brings with it lots of hockey: 14 games on Saturday and 10 on Sunday.
  • The Oilers will play both days with back-to-back 11 am MST matinees, kicking off a five-game road trip with stops in Philadelphia to visit the Flyers and Washington to visit the Capitals.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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